Judge sides with North Port principal again

For the second time in three days, Judge Charles Williams has ruled that the embattled Imagine charter school principal can stay.

At least for now.

The local board and principal Justin Matthews may remain the leaders at the North Port charter school until May 31 — when class ends, the Sarasota County Circuit Court judge decided on Thursday.

“My No. 1 concern is the disruption of the school,” Williams said.

But he also warned that the period after May 31 is fair territory. “Whatever happens after that happens,” he said in the latest round of a legal battle that flared last month after Imagine School at North Port unexpectedly fired its out-of-state parent company.

The stakes in this charter school conflict are high. Not only is it a growing school with about 1,100 students — among the top five largest charter schools in the nonprofit's national chain — but it's also high-performing, which means the rules are looser for school leaders to open similar charter schools elsewhere.

Imagine Schools attorney Shawn Arnold, who accused Matthews of stealing the school, asked the judge to expedite the civil trial.

The Arlington, Va., company has sued Matthews and his board on nine counts, including defamation and breach of contract.

“This needs to be resolved very quick,” Arnold said to the judge, who set the next court hearing for March 11.

The two sides are fighting over which local governing board has control of the school's finances and oversight. Both the local board that voted to break from Imagine Schools on Feb. 15, and the new board assembled in the following days by Imagine Schools, are claiming to be the rightful leaders.

The new board took action against the old one Thursday morning, the reason for the court hearing held later that day.

The new board voted to fire Matthews, the old board and their attorney, Salvatore Scro, who has represented them in court this week.

Matthews “violated the spirit of Imagine,” said Jason Hughes, a financial adviser who is on the new Imagine Schools-appointed board as well as one at Imagine School at Palmer Ranch, the sister school in Sarasota.

“Imagine started this school. Imagine funded this school. Imagine built this school.”

Nothing like it

The new board's vote came just two days after Williams ruled that Matthews could keep his job; Imagine Schools had asked the courts to ban him from campus.

Imagine Schools wanted to replace Matthews in the interim with Christine Watson, the corporation's regional director.

Scro said he was pleased with the judge's latest ruling.

“It'd fly in the face of the judge, as far as we were concerned" if the judge's earlier decision had been undone, Scro explained.

Matthews, who is popular among many parents, has accused Imagine Schools of charging exorbitant management fees that siphoned nearly $1 million a year in public taxpayer funds and not doing enough to expand the high school campus.

About half of the students' parents signed a petition voicing support for him and the local board.

But Imagine Schools officials denied the claims and countered that Matthews and the local board had blindsided them by breaking away from the corporation without following the proper steps to deal with a dispute.

Without the parent company, Imagine School at North Port is in jeopardy of losing its school buildings because it subleases from a Imagine Schools subsidiary, they also said.

The dispute is expected to be discussed at Tuesday's Sarasota County School Board meeting, although there is no action item on the agenda, district spokesman Scott Ferguson said on Thursday.

Imagine Schools operates some 70 charter schools in 12 states and Washington, D.C. Typically, the corporation appoints Imagine parents who live in the local community to serve on the volunteer governing boards.

The North Port fight is a precedent for Imagine Schools, the company's executives said.

It is the first time Imagine Schools has tried to remove board members or frozen a school's bank accounts, testified Ron Sasse, the executive vice president for 15 Imagine schools in the Florida region.

“I've never ever seen anything like this,” Sasse said.

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